In many business organisations today there is a substantial reliance on IT services. Most medium to large organisations employ a computer network to allow their employees to work and communicate within the organisation. In addition to the computer network, there may be other systems which are integrated with the organisation to as to ensure the continuing operation of the business, such as for example, security and communication systems.
Unauthorised access to restricted files can be a significant problem for organisations. Although firewalls can be employed to monitor data packet requests at the application layer level from external IP addresses outside of the organisation, problems occur when clients of the network within the organisation attempt to access restricted files. These activities may place the organisation's networks assets at risk. Furthermore, it is difficult for managers of organisations to be alerted as to breaches of security and due to lag times in detecting security breaches, swift action is not always possible.
In addition to the communications network, there may be other systems that the managers of organisations may wish to monitor to gauge their extent of use by organisational personnel. This information could be used to report on an organisations activities to managers so that they can adequately allocate network resources as appropriate.
The applicant does not concede that the prior art discussed in this specification forms part of the common general knowledge in the art at the priority date of this application.